LAHORE, April 13: Yousuf Talpur- Hasan Jawad scored 423 Match Points to emerge as leaders on the first day of 10th Balijee International bridge championship on Thursday.

The pair from Karachi, however, faced stiff resistence from Mohsin Chandna- Tehsin Gheewala who were the runners-up with 413 Match Points.

Tahir Masud-Javaid Ahmed 412 are at the third place while a leading Indian pair of B. Satyanarayana-Kiran Nader is placed fourth with 406 Match Points.

The pairing of Kiran Nader- B. Satyarayana put up a very impressive performance, but a few unlucky boards had a slightly damaging affect and as a result this pair was pushed to fourth position.

A mixed pair from India and Pakistan, Sapan Desai and Masud Mazhar scored 396 followed by India's Ravi Sawhny- Vijay Sahni 392, Kunti Thakur-Mohini Bindra 390, Mrs. Singla-Mrs. Agarwal 379, Ziaullah Baig-Hamid Mohiuddin 377, Munir Ataullah-Shoaib Bokhari 374, Navaid Anjum-Shakeel Chandna 372, N K Gupta- Sandeep Thakral 370, Sudhir Agarwal-Vinod Sharma 366, Amar Jit-Paresh Gupta 362, Ahsan Zia 364, K. Suryanarayan-Arun Jain 363, Malik Rashid Nabi- Sajid Nabi Malik 363 Match Points.

Three pairs, K R Venkatraman -Subhash Gupta , A. K. Narang-V. Ravindran and Khalid Mohiuddin with 357 Match Points, each were tied.

The contest, is now recognized by the World Bridge Federation.

A total of 156 recognized bridge players of the sub-continent entered the competition, 36 of them from India, 40 from Karachi, 18 from Islamabad, four each from Hyderabad and Abottabad and 54 top notchers of Lahore.

On the opening day, 78 pairs were split into two houses.

The contest is still in an extremely interesting stage and with the pairs contest due to conclude in the afternoon on Friday there is a strong likelihood of a change in the leaderboard positions.

In the ladies contest the pair of Kunti Thakur-Mohini Bindra with 390 Match Points was leading.

The team championship will commence from Friday.